


All the Good She Did Not Do

by isabilightwood



Category: From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series
Genre: Canon Compliant, Light Angst, Multi, Post Season 3 Finale, fdtd fandom please appreciate kisa more, it's there if you squint, this was supposed to be kisa/kate
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-07
Updated: 2016-11-07
Packaged: 2018-08-29 15:09:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8494690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/isabilightwood/pseuds/isabilightwood
Summary: Amaru may have killed them, but Kate’s knowledge of the modern world, of the modern Culebras, of the Lords. Of Freddie. Of Seth and Richie and Scott and Kisa –that knowledge had made Amaru’s success so much easier.





	

Back when Kate was just a preacher’s daughter kidnapped by a pair of infamous criminals, before Amaru, before she died, before she knew Culebras existed, she saw a scantily clad woman dancing with a snake in a creepy strip club in the middle of nowhere Mexico and thought: what a slut. And then everything went to hell.

The Kate Fuller who had looked at Kisa and seen Santanico Pandemonium, the way Malvado had wanted her to be seen, no longer existed. That Kate had been gone long before she bled out in Richie’s arms while Scott looked on in horror. It was a new Kate entirely who had watched helplessly as Amaru drained the life from Kisa’s girlfriend. And Kisa, who had finally, finally been happy, slew Omecha but broke.

Or so Amaru thought.

Kate saw the steel in Kisa’s eyes as Amaru fled _la diosa_ and the Geckos, and immediately repressed the thought. It had been her fault that Amaru learned enough of Kisa to track her down, her memories that betrayed the queen of Culebras, and lead to Manola’s death. It would not be her thoughts that prevented Kisa from succeeding in whatever it was she had planned. Though Kate doubted it was possible at all, if anyone could stop Amaru, it would be Kisa.

Kate added Manola to her litany of names of people whose deaths she was responsible. The ones she knew, though she remembered every face. Amaru may have killed them, but Kate’s knowledge of the modern world, of the modern Culebras, of the Lords. Of Freddie. Of Seth and Richie and Scott and Kisa –that knowledge had made Amaru’s success so much easier.  Kate couldn’t pray anymore, not while possessed by the Mayan Queen of Hell. She couldn’t remember the last time she had really, wholeheartedly prayed before that. It might have been the night her mother died, when her father became a different man, that the words became rote rather than heartfelt. The litany was a different sort of prayer, one that ensured she kept fighting, earning those brief moments of control.

And Amaru decided Kate was an opponent who needed to be put down.

Amaru found the poster of Scott’s band and Kate fought harder. She begged Seth to end it, and he faltered. Kate nearly gave up that night, when the possibility of Amaru destroying everyone she had left became real. But it was that possibility, the thought of adding Scott, and Seth, and Richie to her litany that made her continue fighting.

Amaru made Richie make Freddie murder Ximena, and though Kate had never known her, it was like a light had gone out of the world. Ximena may have been a Culebra, but from the little she’d seen of her, and the bits of Amaru’s jumbled memories of the ancient warrior, she had been a rare, beautiful person. Another woman the old Kate would have judged wrongly, and more irreparable harm she had caused. Amaru chose Richie because she knew it would cause the most damage – to Amaru’s enemies because of his brilliance and the eye in his hand, to Kate herself, to _Richie_ , who had been manipulated into doing things that would haunt him forever by a woman he cared for before.

Seth tortured Amaru in her body and Kate felt every moment on the rack. She welcomed the pain. It meant she was still there, still fighting. Amaru couldn’t handle it, unused to the more intense response of Kate’s human body to stimuli, and Kate seized the opportunity. Seth failed to kill her, again, and she told him she didn’t forgive him. It was true, though not for the reasons he probably believed. She had stopped regretting the loss of the innocent preacher’s daughter long ago. Kate had never felt more alive than those three months Richie had called their Mexican Honeymoon, as much as they had argued, but Seth had made it impossible for her to stay. It was that she couldn’t forgive him for.

Amaru broke free, of course, _La Lorona’s_ manipulation of Scott and Amaru’s screams in Kate’s voice combining to make Scott believe Seth was killing her, as if that wasn’t what she wanted, as if Seth could ever actually do it. Kisa would tell her eventually that Seth had asked her, and Ilhuicamina, or Burt as he had preferred, to kill her if they ran out of options.

The distraction had succeeded, and Amaru had Maggie and Billie. Kate couldn’t enjoy Amaru’s irritation over the loss of _La Lorona_ when the blood of Freddie’s family was soon to be on her hands. Amaru would soon gain her own body, and Kate could not even be relieved at the prospect of it all ending, not when, despite everything, she still cared.

Kate had said there was no love left when she died, and intended it to hurt. It was the greatest lie she ever told. Amaru thought she knew what love was, that she had loved Venganza and been betrayed. Kate knew before she ever laid eyes on the last of the Nine Lords that Amaru was not capable of love, only a twisted imitation of a feeling she had observed in others. All Kate could hope for was that Venganza had, in the centuries after she had freed her people from Amaru’s slavery as Kisa had freed hers from Malvado’s, experienced everything Amaru had tainted for her.

When Freddie walked in with Venganza, Kate did not believe for a moment he didn’t have something planned. Unfortunately, neither did Amaru. Venganza stood proud, and died on her own terms, crumbling into ash as a free woman, but giving Amaru the last thing she needed for the ritual.

Kate felt Amaru vanish from her body all at once, except –

The sight she woke to, of Seth framed by a cross, was funny enough that Kate would have laughed if she were physically able, despite the apocalypse hanging over their heads. Scott was there, too, and Kate would have liked nothing more than to hug him for as long as he would allow and make sure he knew how proud she was of him, that his being a Culebra meant less than nothing to her now, that she had lied, that she loved him. But they had a world to save, and a part of Amaru was still in her.

She confessed she remembered everything, and Kisa – Kisa who had lost everything because of her, Kisa who was beautiful, and stronger than anyone, and finally embracing her status as queen and _la diosa_ – told her it wasn’t her fault.

Richie wasn’t there. She tried to believe what she told Seth, that he might still be alive. But being possessed by the Queen of Hell and knowing she would have to allow herself to be trapped in hell to stop her tended to take the optimism out of a person.

Arguing with Seth felt oddly like coming home, and if he hadn’t made that comment, said that she should have been at prom dancing with some Jesus Freak, her resolve might have been shaken. But that girl was long dead, and Amaru had Scott.

It was time for Seth to let go, it was time for _both_ of them to let go. Redemption in the eyes of the people she loved. The ones in front of her, and the ones long gone. That sounded good. Kate smiled sadly and stepped through the gate into Xibalba.

It was that strange connection Kate had shared with Richie since the beginning that allowed them to find each other, even in that upside-down, oddly yellow realm without filled with mysterious and deadly creatures. They saved each other and somehow found their way back through the gate. She was shocked to see Seth alive, Scott healing from a bullet to the head, Amaru an easy target in front of the gate. Time, it seemed, passed differently in hell. Kisa was there now, and that made what Kate had to do easier.

Xibalba wanted its queen back, and it wanted her dead – and dead at Kate’s hands. She pulled Amaru’s ribcage apart like it was tissue paper and allowed the gate to do the rest. Kisa told her Amaru was no longer part of her when Kate threw the necklace into the gate. And Kate knew it was true.

Somehow, Kisa had forgiven her for her role in Manola’s death, for costing her happiness. She went her own way quickly after they escaped the collapsing cave, but not before making sure Kate could reach her if she wanted. Kate thought she just might take her up on that. The old Kate may have hated women like Kisa, but there was no one the new Kate admired more.

Scott had built a life for himself while he had thought she was dead, and it was past time for him to get back to it. He had his little nest of Culebra bandmates to take care of, and who knew what trouble they had gotten into with him gone. Kate would miss her little brother, but more than anything she was proud of the man Scott had become.

Seth and Richie were walking away from her, talking together. She began to walk in their direction only when they had climbed into their car and neglected to go anywhere. It was obvious they were waiting for her. Kate thought back to Xibalba, to dying, to hunting vampires, to the Mexican Honeymoon, to chainsaws and sacrificial offerings, and a poolside conversation at the Dew Drop Inn. She knocked on the driver’s side window, and waited until Richie rolled it down a few inches to lean in.

“Want some company?” She asked, and saw Seth smirk from the passenger seat. As she slid into the backseat to the sound of the brothers’ banter, Kate smiled softly and decided there was nowhere she would rather be than in the middle of the desert with her pair of criminals. Except, perhaps, the shower of a cheap motel.

**Author's Note:**

> I was really surprised this happened. I don't really do angst, or short fics that I don't get too busy to finish. Not that I had time for this either, but I'm happy I did it anyway.
> 
> Also isabilightwood on tumblr


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